Sharing Lives

Shakespeare was wrong about the good being interred with their bones. If in your life you touch people in a loving, caring and gentle way the good will live forever. It lives on in the hearts of all those you touch. It is passed on from generation to generation long after your remains have turned to dust. We must understand this gift of life is not ours to keep rather it is our to share. Sweetly touching the lives of others is the ultimate Godly thing we can do on this level of existence. Through this touch we enrich all lives, ours as well as those we touch.

The niece of my best friend Joe Kohl this wonderful college essay that brought tears to Linda and my eyes and reminded me of the importance of sweetly touching lives.


“Sarah Wightman
College Essay
Period 2A

I grew up with cameras flashing in my face, talk about making a little girl feel like a movie star. Every time there was any type of milestone in my life such as concerts, plays. birthdays, or the first time at the zoo. I always had thousand of pictures to remember all those events. This all was possible because of my Uncle Joe was a freelance photographer and worked for Baltimore Business journal. I do not have one memory of my uncle being anywhere without at least two cameras around his neck, and about three more hidden in his camera bag, and endless rolls of film crammed into every pocket. He worked the 60’s pork chop sideburns, wide rimmed glasses and a ponytail that went half way down his back. The life of the part, my Uncle would take whipped cream and spray you up one arm, over the head and down the other. Of all the people I have met in the past eighteen years, without any doubt my Uncle Joe is my role model. He taught me that being different is nothing to be ashamed of, and that needing to change for others is unnecessary.
While working for the Baltimore Business Journal my Uncle Joe was also an artist specializing in black and white photography. His concentration: Strippers, Prostitutes, Cross Dressers, Bikers, and Tattoo Artist were the main subjects of his work. He gave these people that most of society looked down upon respect and dignity, so that when you looked at these pictures you are suddenly saying to yourself “these people are human”. His work like his words, displayed the respect he had for all humans regardless of their lifestyles, their review, or their occupations.
In July, my Uncle became gravely ill with leukemia and was hospitalized. During the course of treatment of leukemia he lapsed into a comma losing most f his critical body functions: kidney respiration, and cognitive activity. He remained in a comma for seven months. Doctors gave no hope of recovering. On 20th of February 2002 it became painfully clear the extraordinary efforts to prolong the body that use to belong to my Uncle was not improving but only extending his suffering. My Uncle Joe passed away on the 5th of March 2002. On this day I did not just lose a member of my family I lost an uncle, role model, mentor, and even a father. But he will always live on in my heart and actions, for it is by his life styles that I try to model my life, and be “human” too.”


http://www.carlclark.net/joseph.html